Against the worst team in the NBA, the Lakers rallied from a 20-point deficit with 5:12 left in the third quarter and showed they still have some fight. They beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 100-93, on Friday night.

The Lakers improved to 4-2 on the season-long trip that Coach Mike D'Antoni said would “tell the tale” of the team's ultimate fortunes. The 24-27 Lakers end the trip Sunday against defending NBA champion Miami — and Kobe Bryant said this close call was a reminder to the Lakers to “play for each other.”

That means, according to a self-described “very irritated” Bryant after the game: “Sometimes what you do as an individual conflicts with what we want to do as a group.”

“Everybody had a little brain (cramp) in terms of what we were doing,” Bryant said later. “We've just got to snap back into it — and we did.”

Bryant went scoreless in the first half, bottled up by double teams and frustrated by his teammates' lack of energy. Dwight Howard was again a limited version of his old self. But both Lakers' All-Stars turned it around down the stretch.

D'Antoni said defense was the key, and Howard assumed more of a defensive presence throughout the fourth quarter and made several hustle plays down the stretch. Bryant had one of his most dominant finishes of the season, passing effectively out of the post a couple times and piling up 20 second-half points.

“In the second half, he did a much better job changing the game a little bit defensively,” Bryant said of Howard.

Recognizing the importance of this game, Kupchak was even making the swirling finger gesture from his seat when a key offensive goaltending call was made against Charlotte with 2:47 to play and the Lakers up, 92-91.

Steve Nash also was splendid in the second half, when he and Bryant combined for 10 assists against one turnover. Nash finished with 17 points and seven assists, and Jodie Meeks pitched in 14 points off the bench.

But there wasn't anyone during the rally who wasn't playing hard. That was the ultimate difference.

“All the B.S. on the outside, we've got to shut it off and play hard,” D'Antoni said. “Hopefully we've learned that and hopefully we can learn that.”

D'Antoni said “it saps energy” when the Lakers have outside drama — most recently dealing with Bryant's comments about Howard not having learned to play in pain ... and Howard not playing in pain by missing three games because of his shoulder problem.

Howard took a step forward Friday not just by playing harder late in the game. He discarded the protective undershirt he wore in his poor outing Thursday in Boston and said he wants to put the labrum tear out of his mind.

“It's torn,” he said. “There's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully I don't have an issue where I re-aggravate it. ... I really don't want to talk about it. It's not going to change.”

But even as D'Antoni was half-jokingly suggesting horse blinders to keep the Lakers from “distraction,” Howard's father proclaimed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dwight's hometown paper, that D'Antoni has been out of line in letting Bryant try to motivate his son publicly.

“The problem is the coach,” Dwight Howard Sr. said. “(D'Antoni) needs to step in and say, ‘You guys have got to be quiet. We're trying to secure something here. Dwight is probably looking at the coach, thinking, ‘What are you going to do?'
”

The elder Howard expects Dwight still to re-sign with the Lakers this offseason but noted what a drain this season already has been, saying: “L.A. has been like humble pie for him. When you go from being the man in one city (Orlando) to second or third tier, it takes a toll on you mentally.”